TOUR DIARY: We Lost The Sea Hit The Road With The Jezabels

In the words of everybody’s favourite sad girl Phoebe Bridgers, “the only thing worse than touring is not touring.” This is true in a lot of ways. Touring is tough. It is a lot of hard work and planning, and it costs a small band like ours LOADS of cash. It is a lot of carrying gear, lots of late finishes and early starts and heaps of “rushing to wait”. 

A day usually goes like this - you get up at the crack of dawn to fight Sydney’s traffic to get to the airport to check-in your dumb amount of gear. Then you wait a few hours for a plane. Take off. Sit on a plane and consume a miniature bottle of red wine with cheese and crackers (time does not exist in an airport or on a plane). 

Land and then wait for your gear to arrive (hopefully). Take your gear to the van hire place, wait for the van, load the van. If you have time, check into your accom, so you don’t have to do it at 1:30am when you stagger into the hotel reception. If you don’t have time, drive straight to the venue. Unload the van. Wait for a sound check. Load gear onto stage. Soundcheck. Wait to play. PLAY A BLOODY GOOD SHOW. Whip your gear off stage in a frenzy. Pack your gear up. 

Drink as many rider beers as you can. Wait for the show to end. Pack the van. Drive back to the hotel. Drag your gear out of the van into the hotel. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR GEAR IN THE VAN EVER. Go to your room. Talk absolute shit for a bit with your room buddy. Pass out. Repeat. 

Toss in heaps of dumb jokes and you basically have yourself a tour. “But Mark, what about sex, drugs and rock’n’roll?” Good question and my answer to you is POST ROCK. 

We just wrapped up a seven-date Australian tour with The Jezabels. We had a blast. The Jezabels were the most gracious of hosts and I’d love to say the tour went off without a hitch for us, but I would be lying. Let me tell you all about it!

We hit the airport in Sydney on a Friday morning to fly to Adelaide. It had been a while since we had toured, not since 2019, and we were all a bit worried that we would be a bit rusty. Some kind of muscle memory seemed to kick in and we settled into the airport routine pretty well, including the traditional red wine and cheese and crackers on the plane.

We arrived in Adelaide and drove to The Gov. The Jezabels were sound checking when we walked in and they sounded great. I think nerves kicked in for a few of us, so a few calming tequilas and a soundcheck later we were ready to go. The Adelaide crowd kicked absolute ass. The vibe in the room was killer and we had a really great response. We met some great fans who had travelled a long way and even a couple who got married to one of our songs!

Spirits were good when we got up and hit the airport for the long flight to Perth. After some dealings with a dodgy airport transport driver, we arrived in Fremantle. The Fremantle show was a ripper, and we capped of the weekend by drinking a bottle of wine and a half a bottle of tequila on the way to the airport and then our bass player, Kieran, tried to beat the plane drinking record of David Boon but with red wines and became the plane's Chatty Cathy.

On the afternoon before we were meant to leave for the Byron show we found out that not one but TWO of our members, Mat (one T) and Matt (two Ts), had caught Covid and couldn’t play the shows. We decided the show must go on and decided we would do the show without a piano player and would recruit our good buddy and guitar freak Simon Dawes for guitar. When I say freak I mean it, he literally was notating his parts in the van on the way from Brisbane to Byron. The Bryon show happened. It wasn’t the worst show we’ve played but the highlight was definitely a late-night bakery across the road from the venue. 

The next day we drove to Brisbane to the Fortitude Music Hall which has to be one of the best venues I have ever set foot in. We played a super fun, tight set, and celebrated accordingly. Feeling a bit worse for wear is never great, it's even worse when you’re heading to Canberra. We arrived at the venue, loaded in, and our bass player took a RAT just to make sure he didn’t have Covid as he was feeling a bit under it. He tested positive, we, unfortunately, couldn’t play the show, and we got the hell out of Canberra as fast as we could.

Next was Sydney’s Enmore Theatre. A special show for us for so many reasons. Hometown with lots of friends and family. A venue that we had loved for many years. Sydney turned it up for us and we for them. One of the best shows for us, ever. Not much else to say on that.

We wrapped the tour up at the iconic Forum in Melbourne. It really is a special room and Melbourne, being the best city in the country, did not disappoint. Everything about this show ruled. The venue is breathtaking, we had backstage wine tasting, The Jezabels absolutely smashed it as well. A wonderful way to wrap up the tour.

Yes, touring is tough. But, it is also the best way to share your music with people and take part in special collective experiences, sometimes life-changing experiences, with your bandmates and the fans and for the six of us, it's the greatest thing on earth.

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WE LOST THE SEA UPCOMING HEADLINE DATES

Fri 14 Oct - The Zoo, Brisbane

Sat 15 Oct - Oxford Art Factory, Sydney

Sat 22 Oct - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne